The Six Million Dollar Man (1973)
The Six Million Dollar Man — known in episodic format as "The Moon and the Desert" — was the first televised adventure of Steve Austin. It detailed the crash which rendered Austin's legs, arms and eye useless, and showed at length the operation which restored them. It also explored the psychological ramifications of his being fitted with mechanical implants, issues that would later be echoed in SMDM:"The Bionic Woman". It concluded with Steve's first mission for the organization which authorized his revolutionary surgery. In its original broadcast, The Six Million Dollar Man was a one-off telefilm, produced in late 1972 and early 1973 — about a year prior to the start of the series proper. It was run under the banner of The ABC Wednesday Movie of the Week, more than six months prior to the release of the follow-up, Wine, Women and War. Due to its unique spin on the world of Steve Austin, its fairly extensive re-editing into episodic format, and the general lack of reference to its events by subsequent episodes, it is problematic to place within the continuity of the series. Synopsis Following the successful Moonshot XYZ and two other moonshots, civilian NASA test pilot Steve Austin is critically injured while testing a new plane. Both his legs, his right arm and left eye are irreparably damaged when his experimental aircraft crash lands on the runway. Meanwhile, the Office of Scientific Operations (OSO) have been trying to find a new kind of agent. Ideally preferring a robot, they acknowledge that such technology is too far distant for practical use. However, they've become extremely interested in the possibilities of Dr. Rudy Wells experimental bionic technology as a reasonable compromise. Following Steve's crash, they instruct Wells, to rebuild Steve with bionic replacements. Dr Wells and his team successfully fit Steve with replacement bionic legs, right arm and left eye. However, Steve struggles to come to terms with the seriousness — and particularly the cost — of his "resurrection". What will be required of him once he's fully recovered? He finds out when he is sent on a mission by OSO chief Oliver Spencer, supposedly to rescue a hostage from Arab terrorists in the Middle East. However, when Steve reaches his destination he learns that the hostage has been dead for several weeks and that he has been tricked in order to see if will successfully return home alive. Naming controversy The fact that it was an adaptatation of Cyborg created some controversy about the film's proper title over the years. It has often been called, Cyborg: The Six Million Dollar Man,http://imdb.com/title/tt0070700/releaseinfo in part due to the connection to the novel, but also because the initial scene of the original cut of the movie was of a computer defining the term, "cyborg". Hence, "cyborg" was the first word seen in the film, which some viewers interpreted as the "title". Contemporary evidence from newspapers and a Universal press release firmly establish the title as The Six Million Dollar Man. The original film vs. the series The film remains notable for a number of unique attributes which made it distinct from the rest of the televised adventures of Steve Austin. In particular, it was the only 1970s production using Austin which did not also involve showrunner Glen A. Larson in any credited capacity. Like the other so-called "pilot movies", it also did not have Harve Bennett as executive producer. Moreover, it didn't feature Oscar Goldman, nor did the word "bionics" appear at all. Rudy Wells, though present, is portrayed as a much closer friend to Steve than he ever was in the series. And it more directly utilized the talents of Martin Caidin. Not only was the film the only formally credited adaptation of one of his novels, but it also uniquely provided him acknowledgement as technical advisor. In narrative terms, there are several aspects of the original cut of the film that did not carry over into the series: *The organization that funds Steve Austin's bionic surgery is referred to as the OSO or Office of Strategic Operations. However, early in the movie the letters OSI are clearly seen displayed on the glass door of the office where a high level meeting to discuss the bionic project is taking place. In the subsequent Six Million Dollar Man series only the acronym OSI is used. The is nearly always defined as the Office of Scientific Intelligence although the names Office of Scientific Information and Office of Scientific Investigation are also occasionally used. Using the name OSO in the movie keeps the premise of the pilot more in-line with Martin's Cadin's Cyborg novel, than the series did. *Oliver Spencer is Austin's superior, here. This character did not exist in Cyborg, but could be interpreted as an amalgam of the Jackson McKay and Oscar Goldman literary personalities. In the next movie, Wine, Women and War, Oscar Goldman begins active oversight of Steve Austin. *Despite the fact that Spencer is portrayed as Austin's superior, he is not necessarily depicted as an equivalent to Oscar Goldman. The fact that the OSI is established to exist in this film, but Spencer is the head of the OSO, makes it is possible to believe that the OSO is a division of the OSI. Indeed, the presence of a female character named Mrs. McKay seems to confirm this. She, and not Spencer, is at the head of the table during which the bionics program is ostensibly under authorization review. Later, after Steve's operation, it is she who conducts the mission briefing. Thus, like the novel, a character named McKay is apparently in a position of high authority. Though a common reading of events is that Oscar Goldman replaced Oliver Spencer — which he clearly did, in terms of on-screen time and narrative importance — in fact it seems more likely that both McKay and Spencer were both dropped in favor of Oscar. It is thus quite easy to believe that Goldman was employed by the OSI at the time of the surgery, with his absence in the pilot explained by the events of . There, it is revealed that he personally got the emergency funding for Steve's operation by lobbying Senator Ed Hill. We can assume this is where he was during the first days following the accident, and that subsequent to the accident the OSO's sepearate identity was lost as it merged into the OSI. *Actor Martin Balsam portrayed Dr. Rudy Wells. He is replaced by Alan Oppenheimer in the next movie. *The pilot actually strays from the novel by having Austin be a civilian member of NASA. In the subsequent series, he is an Air Force reserve Colonel attached to NASA, as in the novel. The syndicated version vs. the series In syndication, the movie was used as the basis for a two-part adventure called The Moon and the Desert. In this later form, about 30 minutes of extra footage — drawn from subsequent episodes of the series proper — were edited into the production, creating numerous continuity problems. As a mixture of the work of two different production teams, "The Moon and the Desert" does not simply contain "extra" material that wasn't in the original cut. It contains material not ever intended to be a part of the original film. Specifically, "Moon" has footage taken from , and "Dark Side of the Moon". Some of the issues which flow from this re-editing include: *Steve Austin's mission in the original cut is merely to do a spacewalk. But the added scenes have him landing on the moon. This changes the mission of Moonshot XYZ to the point that there is doubt over whether the mission was, canonically, a lunar landing or merely a lunar orbital mission. This is made even muddier by the fact that the new, "Dark Side of the Moon" footage shows Austin entering the lunar landing module with another astronaut clearly visible in the background. In the footage from the original cut, he was apparently alone. *When Dr. Wells speaks to a semi-conscious Austin on board a plane, on the way to the Colorado Springs research facility, the scene is actually taken from an earlier point where Austin is in hospital. *"The Moon and the Desert" uses a title sequence from the latter half of the series' run. Thus, it proclaims that Richard Anderson and Martin E. Brooks are "also starring". This is not strictly untrue, however, as the newly-added scenes from "The Bionic Woman" are inserted into the production in such a way that Martin Balsam's Rudy watches Brooks' Rudy perform the immediate post-crash operation. Production * Production Number (as ABC Movie): 35125 * Production Number (as episode): 45184 & 45185 * Airdate (as ABC Movie): 7 March, 1973 * Airdate (as episode): 15 December 1974 http://www.pazsaz.com/million.html * Teleplay by: Henri Simoun and Steven Bochco (uncredited) MCA/Universal memo to broadcast outlets * Based on the Novel "Cyborg" by Martin Caidin * Produced and Directed by: Richard Irving Starring * Lee Majors - Steve Austin * Barbera Anderson - Jean Manners Special Guest Stars * Martin Balsam - Rudy Wells * Darren McGavin - Oliver Spencer Co-Starring * Dorothy Green - Mrs. McKay With * Anne Whitefield - Young Woman * George Wallace - General * Robert Cornthwaite - Dr. Ashburn * Olan Soule - Saltillo * Norma Storch - Woman * John Mark Robinson - Aide Trivia *The aircraft that Steve Austin crashes in and that is subsequently featured in the opening credits of The Six Million Dollar Man series was a M2-F2, a test craft built by the Northrop Corporation for NASA. The crash scene footage is a genuine incident which occurred on Wednesday May 10, 1967 at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The test pilot, Bruce Peterson, was seriously injured in the crash losing his right eye, which ended his flying career. Peterson reportedly hit the ground at approximately 250mph, rolling the aircraft six times. He is on record as saying that he hated reliving his accident, week after week, courtesy of The Six Million Dollar Man. *Although the crash sequence uses footage of the M2-F2 accident, Steve is shown boarding a different aircraft on the ground - the Northrop HL-10. The HL-10 is distinguishable from the M2-F2 by its glazed nose. It is considered the most successful of the experimental 'lifting body' aircraft.Jenkins, Dennis R.: Space Shuttle: The History of the National Space Transportation System, Midland Publishing, 2001, pp. 38-39 *The mission that Spencer sends Austin on in the pilot, is based on the second mission in Caidin's Cyborg novel. * Dr. Wells mentions that the manual to the bionic arm has 840 pages. * Wells states that the bionic arm is powered by a "nuclear powered electrical generator", and he points to what is clearly a mechanism on the arm. This is contradicted in a later episode , where it is said the arm uses a thermocouple to generate electricity. A thermocouple would look nothing like a generator, which the mechanism Wells pointed to does. *When Austin is running through the desert on his mission, the perspiration is much heavier under Austin's left arm than it is on the right. Apparently, bionic limbs don't sweat. Nitpicks Scenes Deleted In Syndication *There is a scene where Steve Austin is sitting with his shirt sleeve rolled up, and Dr. Wells is attending to his bionic arm. Exposed circuitry can be seen. This may have ocurred after the scene where Austin rescues the boy from the wrecked car. *A scene where children play a board game has been cut. References Six Million Dollar Man, The